Mark Peiser, Passage Etude Tableau 1, 2013, glass

"It has been my pleasure to follow the career of Mark Peiser for many years and to have collaborated with him and others on Looking Within: Mark Peiser, The Art of Glass, an important solo exhibition and publication at the Asheville Art Museum in 2003/2004.

"For more than 40 years Mark Peiser has been perfecting techniques to better understand his chosen material- glass- while striving to communicate his sense of the world in which we all live. From his home and studio in Penland, NC he has been, and remains, at the epicenter of the Studio Glass Movement, and one of its most acclaimed practitioners.

"Mark says that he has "always wanted to see glass as atmosphere not featureless transparency" he has also wanted to see glass "as if it were volumes of colored light". These pursuits are threaded through and particularly apparent in his Paperweight Vases (1975-1981), his Innerspace Pieces (1983-1994) his Forms of Consciousness (1994-2003) and his most recent Palomar series.

"Music is also a constant in Mark's life and work. It is fitting that he has chosen to adopt Etude Tableau (study pictures) as the title for this new series. Taken from the title of a collection of piano pieces by Serge Rachmaninoff from the early 20th century, the music and the works in Mark's new Passage series are designed to isolate technique and open up new possibilities for exploration.

"Likewise Mark's fascination with the sky has been a recurring theme. He has shared with us his re-visioning of the sky over the years, while exploring format, process and material.

Mark Peiser, Passage Etude Tableau 1, 2013, glass